


Raspberries and honey

by errantknightess



Series: Together we've got two good eyes [1]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Common Cold, Fluff, Friendship, Keeping Company, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6002919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errantknightess/pseuds/errantknightess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were fourteen boards on the underside of the top bunk. Two in the middle were lighter in colour, probably having been fixed in as replacement. Five of the others had deep scratch marks – twenty two in total. There were thirty seven nails, eleven knots in the wood, and three holes where the knots had fallen out, and Lavi was about to die of boredom counting all of them over and over again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raspberries and honey

There were fourteen boards on the underside of the top bunk. Two in the middle were lighter in colour, probably having been fixed in as replacement. Five of the others had deep scratch marks – twenty two in total. There were thirty seven nails, eleven knots in the wood, and three holes where the knots had fallen out, and Lavi was about to die of boredom counting all of them over and over again.

He sighed noisily through stuffed nose and closed his eye, the first throbs of a coming headache already lurking around his temple. The light falling in through the window seemed too bright. Was it afternoon already? It was so easy to lose the track of time laying like that with nothing to do but stare off into space. The persistent silence rang in his ears – how could a lack of sound be so loud? – and he had to cough a couple of times just to break this maddening stillness. The room felt almost unreal, like a lifeless, motionless scenography. Bookman had left to let him sleep in peace, but Lavi couldn’t fall asleep at all. With his hazy mind and aching muscles there wasn’t much else he could do, though. Getting up was out of the question; he couldn’t even sit straight without feeling dizzy. He had tried to read, only to have the words dance and wobble on the page until he felt nauseous and gave up. That left him the _riveting_ task of counting the boards and nails and knots and holes, back and forth and back and forth until his brain went numb and started to feel like a dry sponge.

The sudden knock on the door thundered directly under his skull. Lavi scowled, his eye clenching shut.

“It’s open,” he croaked.

The screeching of hinges went on forever, but when it finally stopped, Lavi’s ears were rewarded with a quiet voice speaking his name in the softest way possible.

“Hello, Lavi.”

“Hey, Allen,” he managed in answer, slightly rising his head to look at his visitor. “What’s up?”

“That’s what I came to ask you. I haven’t seen you all day.” Allen crossed the room, stopping awkwardly in front of the bed. “You don’t look good.”

Lavi laughed hoarsely.

“I don’t _feel_ good, either. I think I’m coming down with something.”

“You _think_?” Allen tilted his head, looking him over with concern. “I think you’ve already come down with it pretty hard.”

“Yeah, rub it in, why don’t you,” Lavi whined, pushing himself higher on the pillow. “How come _you_ are fresh as a daisy? We’ve been walking in that storm together! That’s not fair.”

“I’m not sure.” Allen scratched his cheek, his eyes darting to the side. “But I suppose my Innocence might be giving a boost to my immune system. I’ve never really been bothered by the common cold.”

“You’re not missing out much.” Lavi let out a horrid cough, barely recognizable as an attempt to laugh. Allen’s face fell.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, coming closer to slam Lavi on the back until he was better. “For getting us lost back then. You wouldn’t be sick now if we hadn’t had to spend the night out in the rain. It’s all my fault.”

Lavi waved his hand, wiping the tears that the hacking fit squeezed from his eye.

“Don’t worry about this. It’s not that bad. At least Gramps is giving me a break for a change.”

“That’s good.” Allen smiled. “You need plenty of rest now. Should I close the curtains?”

“Yes, please.” The relief in Lavi’s voice rang clear even through the hoarseness. When the room plunged in a pleasant, filtered shade, he leaned back again, pressing his face to the blissfully cold pillow. “Thanks, that’s better.”

“You’re welcome.” Allen turned away from the window and looked around uncertainly. “I need to finish my mission report now, but do you need anything else before I go?”

“No,” Lavi wheezed, and before Allen could take it for his cue to leave, he reached out and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t go. You can use my desk and everything. Just stay here, okay? I’ll go crazy if I have to spend one more minute alone in here.”

“Uhh… All right,” said Allen slowly, shooting him a wary glance. Satisfied, Lavi loosened his grip and let his friend plop down at the paper-strewn desk by the window. Even in those few minutes he’s been here, Allen’s company had already made him feel better; if anything, at least his brain was no longer about to cave in on itself from lack of stimuli.

“You haven’t started yours yet, have you?” Allen asked, combing through the piles of documents in search for pen and ink. “Of course you haven’t. Why am I even asking?”

“Your lack of faith is offending.” Lavi pouted and reached to the pile at the very edge of the desk. “I’ve started it all right. You have no idea how bored I’ve been! Look,” he said smugly, handing Allen a crinkled sheet of paper.

Allen glanced at the smudged, wobbly handwriting crawling downwards across the page. Half of the text had been crossed out and the rest was unintelligible. He sighed.

“I can do it for you this time while I’m at it. _Just_ this time,” he stressed.

Lavi rubbed his forehead, conflicted.

“Sounds tempting. But wouldn’t it kind of defeat the point of a personal report?”

“As if Komui actually reads them,” Allen shook his head. “Haven’t you seen his office? I don’t think he even knows where he puts them.”

“Right.” Lavi stretched out and turned on his side, watching as Allen hunched over the desk with a pen in hand. “But that just means there’s no point in writing them in the first place. Seriously, Allen. You don’t need to do that for me.”

“It’s all right. I don’t mind.” Allen smiled, eyes fixed on the sheet of paper before him.

Lavi wasn’t going to argue. It was clear that Allen was feeling guilty about the situation, so he decided to just let the boy make up for it the way he wanted. Soon, the room filled with the soft sound of shuffled papers and Allen’s humming. Though quiet, it was nothing like the still silence from before – not as drilling and deafening. Lavi slowly felt himself drift away, his mind pleasantly relaxed rather than numb. He was still vaguely aware of the presence in the room, the sounds and movements, but it all was coming to him as if through a woolen drape. It wasn’t until he heard a loud gurgle that he opened his eye again, sending Allen a bleary, questioning glance.

“Sorry.” Allen let out an embarrassed laugh and pressed his hand to his stomach. “I didn’t think that could wake you up.”

“No, it’s fine,” Lavi mumbled, trying to focus his groggy vision. The room was darker than he remembered. “What time is it?”

“A little past six, I think. I’ve heard the bells not long ago.”

“And you’ve been here all time?” Lavi rubbed at his eye, the nasty needles of headache piercing clear through his temple. As he saw Allen nod, he couldn’t hold back a groan. “You missed dinner? Why didn’t you go to eat something?”

“You asked me to stay. I didn’t want to leave you here alone.” Allen scratched his head with a sheepish smile.

“I asked you to _stay_ , not to _starve_ ,” Lavi sighed. In a way, he was weirdly flattered that Allen would put his company over food – but it still made him feel bad. “I’ll be fine. Go and eat now.”

“Hold on, _I’m_ the one taking care of _you_ , not the other way around,” Allen pointed, but another growl from his stomach quelled his protests. “Do you want me to bring you something?”

“I’m not hungry.” Lavi shook his head, feeling his brain bounce inside his skull. His throat was sore and parched so much that he doubted he’d be able to swallow even a bite. “I feel like I’ve been chewing on sandpaper.”

“Something to drink, then. I’ll be back in a moment.” Allen pushed back his chair and left the room. Lavi fell back onto the pillow, his eye darting up ahead, back to the boards and nails. He lay still, counting his own noisy breaths and fruitlessly trying to fend off the throbbing pain in his head. He couldn’t be more relieved when the door screeched opened again.

As he expected, Allen came back with a heaping tray of food for himself. Lavi watched him maneuver it all onto his already cluttered desk before he turned his attention to the mug he was offered.

“What’s this?” he asked, nursing the mug in his hands. Only now did he notice how much they were shaking.

“Tea with raspberry syrup and honey,” Allen replied over his plate, wolfing the dinner down at his usual inhuman pace. “It’s good for fever. It will warm you up and help you sweat the illness out. Cheers!” He raised his own mug and clinked it lightly against Lavi’s.

“ _Na zdrowie_ ,” Lavi muttered, slowly lifting the brimming mug to his lips. As the steam hit his face, he could already feel warmer. The drink burned on his tongue, hot and tart, with just a hint of sweetness in the back of his throat as he gulped it down. It weighed down in his stomach, filling him with a thick, cosy heat, and halfway through the mug, he started to feel drowsy.

“It’s good,” he said, sending Allen a wide, relaxed grin. “Really good. Thanks, Allen.”

“No problem.” Allen smiled back, polishing the last of his food off the plate. “Try to get some sleep now, all right? You should feel better in the morning.”

“All right.” Lavi set the mug down and sank into his pillow, his aching muscles slowly letting the tension up. He yawned, coughed, and looked up at Allen just as the other started to pile his empty dishes back onto the tray.

“Can you stay just a bit longer?” he asked. “Just until I fall asleep. I don’t wanna lay here counting those damn boards again.”

For a second, Allen’s face was a portrait of severe confusion, but then he nodded and slid back on the chair, shuffling it closer to Lavi’s bed.

“Just until you fall asleep,” he agreed.

Lavi smiled into the pillow and closed his eye, drifting away much, much quicker than he wished.

***

He woke up to the sun filtering in through the curtains, and he was glad to discover that the light wasn’t making his head ready to burst anymore. The chills were gone, too. Everything was much better, only that he felt gross with his oily bangs sticking to his forehead; he was almost glad his nose was still stuffed, because his sweaty nightshirt must have reeked horribly.

As he shifted around, stretching out his stiff limbs, Lavi noticed a strange weight on the side of his pillow. He turned around; slumping over onto his bed was Allen, still half-seated in the chair that was now tilted dangerously, about to topple over. His breath swept over Lavi’s cheek, time and time again as Lavi pondered whether he should wake him up or not. He looked too much at peace sleeping like that, with parted lips and flushed face–

Lavi sat up, blinking the last of sleep out of his eye. This flush didn’t look healthy, and Allen’s breathing was too quick and too shallow. He reached out to touch his forehead; sure enough, it was burning. Lavi gently brushed the white hair away, tiny droplets of sweat smearing under his fingers.

“Crap,” he muttered, lightly tapping Allen on the cheek. “Hey, Allen? Wake up.”

Allen groaned something; his eyelids fluttered and he slowly stirred awake. The chair slammed back down on the floor as he pulled himself up.

“Ah… sorry,” he yawned, his voice hoarse. “Are you feeling better today?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Lavi ran his hand through his hair, wincing at how dirty it felt. “How about you?”

“I’m—” Allen started, but whatever lie he was about to say was interrupted by a loud sneeze that made him sway together with his chair. “I’m going to lay down,” he finished, wiping his nose into his sleeve under Lavi’s intent, concerned gaze. “Looks like I’m not that immune after all.”

“Guess not.” Lavi offered him a sympathetic smile and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you now.”

“Then you’ll just catch it back from me,” Allen protested, leaning away from Lavi’s hand.

Lavi laughed and buried himself deeper under his blanket.

“Honestly? I don’t think I’d mind that at all.”


End file.
